Big brother isnt staged in the sense that its been scripted and the housemates are "acting"

But about 3/4ths of the contestants managed to get in due to thier connections with endemol (friends,being on previous shows etc etc). We all know that when inside the diary room bigbrother gives them topics to talk about then cleverly edits it to make it seem as though the person has just said it out of the blue.

But it would be almost impossible for big brother to be staged,theres too many weak links.

The original concept for BB was basically stick a bunch of people in a box put some cameras on them and give them silly tasks to do to quell the boredom Hopefully their own personalities would come out and make the program interesting which alongside the public’s curiosity and voyeurism would make them watch these people grow attached to them and then participate in the game show element.

At time went on we saw in BB3 some more interesting physical obstacles being put in the house, so we could watch how they managed to overcome them.

At no point would any of this be scripted.

THEN

BB4 came along and basically the participants didn’t want to play the game for some reason.

BB panicked and then started an alternative approach. Instead of placing physical obstacles they would instead start playing mental games with the participants. This was to be done by hitting them with emotional tasks as well as physical.

However in order to do this they would need people who would hopefully react as they expected otherwise they could be criticised for mental cruelty and causing long lasting emotional damage on the participants..

So how do you select people such that you know how they could react? You can’t really, however what you can do look for is people who best fit certain stereotypes, since by their definition stereotypes are expected to behave in a certain way in a vertain environment.
Also the better the producers know about you through their contacts then the more chance they have of knowing what stereotype bracket they fit into.

So first of all the best way to get into BB is to be as close to a stereotype as possible.

I don’t know if BB pre-select the stereotypes they want or not, but they will certainly pick a mix of stereotypes that they feel would clash with each other.

Therefore BB isn’t scripted. However what it is a set of staged events that the producers hope will trigger events that people will be interested in because they perhaps recognise it in their own lives and become more sympathetic to certain members? Or cause you to hate other characters?

But does it work? – do you feel more emotionally attached to the housemates in BB5 and 6 than you did in BB1, 2 and 3?

And do you think BB is now more like a live soap opera than reality TV?

That still doesnt explain anything.
HM's can be coached to react to certain situations that BB would now were coming.

So the essence is - are the HM's reactions natural or coached.

Perhaps the truth is that there's a mixture of people in here who I categorise as

Actors whose role is to be an Agent Provacateurs. I.e. The catalyst for events

Reactors who catalysts know will react to certain situations

Observers less extreme personalities who they include to try and give the house a resemblance or normality.


If that's so then I feel that these people are the actors who will try to trigger events

i.e.
Mary,
Makosi
Kemal

(Notice how when these people are in arguments they always appear calm).

and these are the reactors who the actors will try to antagonise.

Science
Craig
Lesley
Max
Saskia

(Notice that they normally don't instigate the arguments yet react quite strongly when drawn in)

and these are the observers who at times wonder whats going on and may try to avoid conflict, and even when drawn in, the argument will be less intense.

Roberto
Derek
Sam
Vanessa
Anthony

It would also be expected that they may take longer to settle in than the other group.

That sounds like a fair assessment of the show.

When Makosi had her task to make everyone hate her, she was constantly bursting into tears and crying over absolutely nothing, to make everyone think she's a crybaby. However, the crying itself looked quite fake to me as a viewer who knew about the secret task.

In the diary room after her secret task had finished, she started crying to Big Brother, and it looked equally fake. Perhaps she is an actress?

Mary on the other hand is particularly odd. She said she's from Atlantis, and likes witchcraft and things like that, and yet when she went into the diary room she was saying "Oh look, cobwebs! I feel so at home." and then she was overjoyed because the boys were dressed as vampires.

She's almost like a self parody. Any serious wiccan or pagan or whatever is unlikely to sit around their house with plastic cobwebs everywhere, with her husband dressed as a vampire?

Or she could just be someone who has found that crying is a good way to manipulate people and can turn it on or off at will.

It did occur to me during her task that her diary room performances where just as manipulative towards the audience as her behaviour in the house was to the other HM's

The only way to win is to be manipulative

Now, when you think back to Mary's party we saw Mary and Kemal putting
on some wierd act and dance.

In all honesty did that look real or was it a staged dance for the cameras by two of the actors........

Also would any real 'White' witch, really want to participate in such a derogatory pantomine of her craft.

Those two and Makosi are the prime manipulators in the group and it's no co-incidence that they were the prime focus of events in the first week.

BB always seem to highlight certain individuals until the other MH come out of their shell. imo
This looks like the staged HM's getting the show up and running until the others are comfortable to come out and be themselves or parodies of it.

i don't think its fixed, maybe one or two of them know each other because they were at the same auditions.
I do think the haven't really chosen a good mix of different age groups this year. All they seem to talk about is going out drinking .

This group are that young that they probably dont have that much experience of anything else.

At least half of them are actors or have connections to that field.. feel sorry for all those mugs that went for the auditions thinking they had a chance.

That's precisely what I was thinking. For her to get excited over plastic cobwebs makes a farce of her "white witch" practices, which makes me question if she really is a white witch.

Anthony and Maxwell talked about being on TV before last night.
Saskia tried for acting jobs and had an agent
Mary said she had acted - amarur dramatics ???

Problem is that by giving nominations to one person the whole show (and the result) is randomized - unless you take it further and suggest Makosi was told before who to nominate - if that did happen it would fit the artificial theory. Another perm would be to have a group of actors and some real HM - thats been done before on reality TV.........

Thats because she is a manipulative person?

I don't think the words were 'What's your name again' but more along the lines of 'Sorry I can't remember your name'. Can't remember who said it to who but I definitely remember that was said when the housemates first entered the house and thought it was odd at the time as it definitely gave the impression they had met previously.

It is possible that out of the HM'S chosen a couple of them could have been at the same audition & maybe even in the same group at the audition.

Personally i don't think it's staged but if Kemal or Makosi end up winning this.Not doubt i will be claiming that it's fixed.

Now way is that a real House. So it must be staged.